Field Report frontman Chris Porterfield wants everyone to know about a pretty amazing eight-year-old girl in his Milwaukee neighborhood who lives with sickle cell anemia. He wrote the song "Your Friend Tia" to make her feel better after all the struggles she has to endure and he's released it on Bandcamp and is donating the proceeds to her family.
As Stereogum notes, it's been a year and half since Field Report's latest album, Marigolden, but this song has nothing to do with a new album, just a nice gesture from a caring friend and neighbor.
"My 8-year-old neighbor friend Tia was born with sickle cell anemia, an awful blood disease. She has undergone treatments and transfusions and transplants. Her bravery and warmth and kindness are an inspiration to everyone who meets her," Porterfield wrote in a statement on Bandcamp about the song. "It dawned on me that we could at least help this amazing little girl feel special, and that we were weirdly positioned to be able to tell people who like our work about her story. So we wrote this song."
It's a simple but extremely endearing song that can make you tear up, especially if you watch the video of Porterfield singing alongside Tia (aka "the bravest girl in the world") and her friend.
"If I was a carpenter I'd help them build the deck, if I had a lawn mowing business I'd mow the lawn, but this is what I do and I was pleased to make something that's useful," Porterfield said at the end of the video.
Porterfield also used to be in the band DeYarmond Edison with Bon Iver's Justin Vernon, but there's no work just yet of any new albums on the horizon for either band. For now fans just have to make do with these tear jerking, uplifting songs.
Listen below.
